From my last post on August 12, 2004 until today, March 26, 2015, a total of 226 days have passed. That's 7.5 months, and well over half a year. And what do I have to show for it? Not bloody much. Between my stated intent of hatching a 2-year plan, I would have to give myself an "F" at this point as I've hit around (privately) a handful of times since then and also stopped going to the gym after I started back through most of September and October of 2014.

As I approach turning 42, I realize that I don't have forever in front of me to improve, especially with young players like Colin, Jacob, Avery and others rounding into their prime. (watch out for Gabe Garboden, though! he may yet sneak up on us in another year or two...)

Personally, I don't happen to subscribe to the theory that age is necessarily an issue to achieve great things in Air Hockey - just look at Mike Cummings, who entered the sport at an age several years beyond me but is currently a Top-10 ranked player! I'm still approaching this with the mindset that I could possibly have a shot at winning a major tournament someday, but that will absolutely not happen until I can get my ass back on the table and get some consistent reps in.

Aside from the physical issues, though, I've more recently come to believe that much of what I need to achieve my Air Hockey goals is a change of mentality. It's not to say that my game won't improve with more table time as it did 7 or so years ago when I dedicated more of my time to practicing and improving my offense, but I know I need more than just pure practice to compete.

In my downtime, I've given more thought to developing strategies and tactics that I haven't considered before, but of course those will take time to refine and incorporate into my game. Finding the right balance between tweaking my mental approach and getting comfortable with the physical changes in my game will certainly require time and energy, but I believe that's the only way to take my game to the next level.

Perhaps I will comment on this development as it occurs here, but certainly getting back on the table on a regular basis needs to happen first. I know it all starts with me actually doing it, so here's to hoping that it won't take another 226 days for me to get that ball rolling!